CIO Happy Hour » Development

Diving in Prototyping with Axure

d.dolgorukov — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 12:52:50 +0000

Friday treat for our readers: Victor Hsu, founder and PM with Axure, answers our questions today. Victor explains how Axure fits into “more with less” conception, points out that MAxure is a top priority, defines next steps in Axure development, and shares his vision on the business domain evolution and application portfolio management.

CIO Happy Hour (CHH): Please introduce yourself and tell us what Axure is.
Victor Hsu (VH): Hello. I’m Victor Hsu and I’m one of the founders of Axure and the product manager for Axure RP. First, thanks for the opportunity to be a part of CIO Happy Hour.
Axure is a small, diverse team of people who love building and using good software. We make a tool called Axure RP which was one of the first tools dedicated to wireframing and prototyping web sites and applications.

CHH: When you launched the very first version in 2003, who were your competitors? How would you describe your market position now?
VH: In 2003, most people were using tools like Visio, Illustrator, or Dreamweaver to make wireframes and click-throughs. Everyone seemed to know that prototypes would be really helpful, but the time and skill sets needed to make them just didn’t fit into most projects. Axure RP helped people bring prototyping to a lot projects by not requiring code and speeding up the process enough to fit into existing schedules.
Today, there are many more options, everything from simple sketching tools to “enterprise” solutions. We’ve continued to focus on giving our customers the features they need (and ask for) to reach their best designs while keeping it in a package that’s accessible and makes sense. We’re happy to be able to say that we now have customers in over half the Fortune 100 and thousands of small and medium business all over the world. And super happy to have customers who like what we do enough to offer training, organize a global online user conference, and build files and libraries to share with the community.

CHH: How would you describe the typical Axure user? How collaboration trend has changed the vision of Axure product? Are you planning to develop a shared projects concept or there will be other collaboration solutions?
VH: The typical Axure user could be an independent consultant that does everything from design to code, or a UX professional creating cutting edge designs at an interactive agency, or a business analyst at one of the largest companies in the world.
Collaboration has been an important part of our vision for some time now. In April last year, we released a feature called shared projects so multiple people could work on an Axure RP project at the same time. As a bonus, it also keeps a history of the project so you can, for example, see what your project looked like a month ago. This has become an essential feature for many of our customers. We will continue to improve shared projects and look for ways to bring others into the process.

CHH: In recent versions Axure provides versatile library of elements and widgets, it’s impossible to cover everything. For example, the prototype of financial application cannot emulate arithmetical interactions which are essential for such a type of application. What’s your position here: to update the library with new releases, to give the capabilities to develop javascript-based interactions, crowdsource?
VH: We’re going to be adding more widgets and interactions, but providing ways for customers to create and share their own widgets and interactions is the ultimate goal. The custom widget libraries feature, which lets you make your own libraries, was a step in that direction. It’s really impressive and fun to see the things customers are making. We’re seeing widgets we didn’t even know were possible!

CHH: How is MAxure going? When do you plan the release of Axure for Mac?
VH: Maxure has been a long time coming. It’s going surprisingly well and I can’t wait to get it into the hands of our customers. With a little luck, we’ll have something to demo before the end of the year. You can keep track of our progress at axureformac.com.

CHH: Let’s talk about the trends in the world of prototyping tools. While all solutions are trying to meet a new standard “more with less”, Axure remains a very heavy application for mostly professional usage. Do you see any other evolution for Axure except prototyping?
VH: I’m a big believer in “More with less”. If a paper sketch is enough to get the right design delivered, it doesn’t make sense to spend time doing more. We’re going to continue to make Axure RP better and faster at “less”, but still make sure that when you need it, “more” is there. Prototyping is our sole focus right now. There are many opportunities to deliver value up and down stream, but I believe that focusing on prototyping today will provide the most benefit to our customers.

CHH: Talking about SaaS vs desktop application: what benefits Axure provides as a desktop application and are there any plans to invest in online version?
VH: Some of the frequently mentioned benefits of desktop applications are the ability to work offline, a more responsive user interface, control over your data, and less risk for downtime. Of course, SaaS has its benefits too, and we’re very interested in online services that will bring those benefits to Axure RP customers. An online version is still on the table, but we don’t have immediate plans.

CHH: What else is on Axure development roadmap?
VH: I think you can get a pretty good idea by taking a look at the “Suggestions for Future Releases” thread on the Axure RP forum (www.axure.com/forum). But let’s focus on shipping Maxure first, and then we can talk about the next version :).

CHH: Do you envision development frameworks as rivals?
VH: Development frameworks can definitely be used for prototyping. But I think many projects and teams get more from a faster, less complex prototyping process that everyone can contribute to rather than the potential for code reuse. And as more and more companies continue to recognize the value of good design and user experience, there will be less of a “if it doesn’t go in the final product, don’t do it” thinking.

CHH: Axure is a well-known brand. Do you use social media as a tool for further branding or rather lead generation?
VH: We were a little late joining Twitter and Facebook, but now that we’re there, we’re happy to have another way to listen to customers. We’re seeing these tools help our customers connect with each other too. I’m not sure if social media is the place for companies to be doing lead generation, but so far it seems like a great way for people to recommend products that they love. If we focus on making that kind of product, then I think social media can only help.

CHH: Being a major trendsetter in wireframing, how do you see the next years of the business domain development?
VH: First, thank you for calling us “a major trendsetter in wireframing” :) As more and more teams adopt wireframing and prototyping and we continue to learn how to get the most out of it, we’ll see more best practices evolve around when and how to use them. Along with that, will come solutions that more closely tie prototyping to the already well established parts of the application lifecycle.

CHH: Hsu, it was our pleasure to interview Axure. CIO Happy Hour wishes your team a speedy deployment of a Mac version and even more happy users.

Experience Functional Wireframing with Justinmind

d.dolgorukov — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 09:28:19 +0000

Today we are discussing prototyping with Xavier Renom, CEO and co-founder of Justinmind. The company is quite different from our previous participants – Justinmind Prototyper is a desktop solution only. Bundled with a comprehensive set of features makes it a great tool for pros. Xavier shares his vision on wireframing market, hints that online version is to come soon, and tells some intriguing user-experience stories.

CIO Happy Hour (CHH): Please briefly introduce yourself and your product Justinmind.
Xavier Renom (XR): Xavier Renom, CEO and co-founder of Justinmind.
Justinmind Prototyper is a productivity tool that allows the prototyping, simulation and validation of applications and websites. It covers the entire process, from the navigation flowchart creation to the usability testing, as it allows creation of fully functional simulations.
In a nutshell: you can visualize and test your web application before you code it. This way, you’ll minimize changes on later stages and risks involved.

CHH: Only a couple of years ago wireframing tools were associated with pen and paper, Visio or PowerPoint at the maximum. Could you tell us more about the evolution of Justinmind from its very first concept till today?
XR: Justinmind started as a software development company, founded by two engineers. During its initial phase, we discovered that using a high-fidelity simulation, it was possible to reduce time and re-work in project development, so we started the development of Justinmind Prototyper.
Our products allow the creation of hi-fi wireframes, and then simulate the application, with advanced features such as data behaviour, conditional events and templates.
Justinmind Prototyper is not just wireframing software, it also allows stronger and more powerful prototyping. We intend to provide a software that allows people to visualize their concepts before long coding phases, and have it all documented before building the real software or a website.
Besides, it is intended to help visualize the changes during application development projects.

CHH: Justinmind is desktop software. A lot of your competitors offer online versions of their solutions. Is there a particular reason why JP sticks to desktop or are you planning on releasing a web-based version as well?
XR: Most of the web competitors allow you to just design a mockup or a wireframe, but not much more. Justinmind Prototyper is a full drag&drop tool for rapid prototyping and we believe that a desktop environment is perfect for productivity tools … by the moment.
On the other hand, sharing and validating prototypes online is very important. That’s why we are about to launch Justinmind On-Demand, which is a platform where a user can share, test and annotate a prototype without additional installations.

CHH: Who stands behind Justinmind? Please tell us more about your team and your inspirers?
XR: Justinmind is a Barcelona-based spin-off from Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña. It was founded by Xavier Renom and Pablo González, and is backed up by venture capital. Today, it’s composed by a team of engineers, researchers and a marketing and selling team.

CHH: Please describe your typical clients/users. Is there a dominant geographical market? If yes, why?
XR: We have government, banks, insurance, small IT consulting companies and several UX designers around the world. Nowadays our bigger clients are in Europe, but we’re selling online to the whole world. It’s impressive the amount of users we get from India.
We have some distribution partners around the world, and our potential marketing is not restricted geographically.

CHH: Justinmind is a powerful prototyping tool with an extensive set of features. Do you have statistics on their usage: most used, least used, etc.?
XR: It always depends on the client and/or project being done. Big enterprises need and use the Requirement Management features, personalized documentation and the capabilities of data management. UX designers are more interested in dynamic interactions, events and simulation.

CHH: Taking into account your vast experience on the market, do you have any plans for going into the niche for individuals with light version of the product for a lower price or even for free? Why or why not?
XR: We received some feedback from users about this. We cannot say we won’t do that, and if too many users were interested in a version without datamasters or business logic prototyping (just for drawing wireframes), we’ll think about it.
Nowadays we’re working full time trying to improve our main product, Justinmind Prototyper.

CHH: JP covers full cycle of prototyping making it time-consuming to start using it right away. How do you assist JP newbies? What is an ordinary implementation phase duration?
XR: We think it’s very important to help users to understand better our tools and the powerful of application prototyping. We have a support portal, with people always willing to help and assist our users, that’s not just marketing talk. We have people to be online talking to consumers, solving problems and generating tutorials. Our blog’s main objective is to talk, solve questions and give some usage tips.
Besides, we offer training courses for customers, and try to use internet to leverage the help for our customers.
For our users or future users that have any problems or doubts:
http://support.justinmind.com
http://www.justinmind.com/blog
The implementation phase duration depends on the customer. It can take just hours for small companies with small teams and easy development process, and 2-3 days for a large company with complex development processes and methodologies.

CHH: How do you differ from your competitors and what innovations have JP brought to the market?
XR: Justinmind Prototyper has features competitors still don’t have, and some that were copied soon after launching.
Most of our competitors allow you to simply draw wireframes. Justinmind Prototyper is meant to be a full working suite. You draw the Navigation Flowchart, create the screens, manage requirements, and generate documentation for final production, with all the elements interconnected via drag and drop.

Bi-directional drag and drop – you can link objects, comments or requirements dragging them both ways around;
Templates, which can be imported and exported;
Instant simulation without the use of a browser;
MS Word document generation customization.

CHH: How easily can JP be integrated in the business process of a particular company? Can you describe a usual case-study?
XR: It is possible to go from idea to full simulation of software or a website using only Justinmind Prototyper. Justinmind recommends adapting our Agile Prototyping Methodology to the business processes of a particular company.
As for usage, some corporate clients use it to prototype applications and create their own product libraries. Software companies use it to simulate future products, and even it was used in a pre-sales stage for a client of ours.
There’s the case of Innoget, in which an entrepreneur had the idea of a portal, but he was a biologist. So he used JP to create the whole portal to explain to investors and programmers what exactly he wanted, after a 2-hour crash course!

CHH: You’ve contacted us via twitter yourself. This means you have a great monitoring net. Do you have any tricks you can share with other readers on brand monitoring?
XR: We intend to use the tools offered to contact and provide a better service to our users. We started twittering, blogging and contacting bloggers, because it’s a more simple and honest way to approach and reach them.
We hired a copywriter who is an information junkie and is always testing websites and tools for tracking what’s happening online, via twitter or blogs. A good feed reader and the ability to fine-tune it are a must.

CHH: How successful is social media as a channel for generating new clients? What is your experience in the social internet field?
XR: Nowadays, it’s a great tool for engaging into conversation with our customers, and it helps to know what really users want and expect from our software. And, of course, it is very helpful. We acquired great insights from some blog posts and some encouraging tweets.

CHH: Xavier, thank you for a great interview. You’ve done a great job with Justinmind and we wish you to stay on track and remain an example of a great functional wireframing solution!

Our readers, companies and we would love to hear the questions you have or share your praise to your favorite wireframing products!